By Shannon Williams
I used to tell people when they asked what I did for a living that I was a “change agent.” You see, as a social worker, I have always had to deal with government funding and that is an ever-changing beast! There were times that I would be training on a new program and going to training on the next new program in the same month! I thought I was good at change and prided myself in not being the one who always said “that is not how we used to do it.” I no longer feel that way, I want just some things to stay the same, or at least long enough for me to figure out one change before the next one comes along.

I put off updating my iPhone as long as I can, as I know it will “change” something I know how to use to a different way and I will have to learn it all over again. It must be my age, as change is just not fun anymore and is the source of stress for me. With all the time we have spent in medical settings in the past months, I wondered about a few things. I recall when everyone had to start wearing gloves when they touched you. It was due to the AIDS epidemic and one of several habits that we changed. The younger generation has no memories of a nurse without gloves, and they have never seen a nurse put the shot cap lid in her mouth and recap the needle all in one graceful movement!! Those days are long gone and gloves and sharps disposal containers are just a way of life. If you looked at the practices before that you wonder why we did not use gloves before AIDS was part of our life. I guess we will look back at face masks and remember a day that hardly anyone used one. Even now and then, you would see someone on a plane with one on and your wondered if they had cancer and were working to protect themselves from our germs. I long for the day when we don’t have to wear one to fly, but fear that may never come and it will just be part of life from now on.

These days most companies use some sort of payroll software where the employees “clock in and out of “ and put request for time off. They recently updated the software we used, the software company did not give us any notice, it was just different one day! I only directly supervise about 10 people, but those 10 people supervise over 100, so I look at a ton of time sheets. It took me the better part of a day just to figure out how to get to places in that software that I knew how to do just the day before. I had a ton of employees who just melted over that change!

But I think that people change is the hardest and most stressful. People changes come for all sorts of reasons. Of course, death is the biggest one and it seems everything changes overnight and we are lost not knowing how to do what we could do before just because someone is no longer there. My father has been dead for almost 9 years and still at 9 pm most nights, I think I need to call my dad. I don’t want to lose that passing thought, but you would think I would no longer have that thought after some many years have passed. One of my dearest friends at work was the HR Director, she was a great work friend and when we traveled for work we discovered we could have a whole lot of fun together; so began to travel for fun together. She has retired and I knew it would be different, but the change has not been an easy one for me. The new Director is not a people person, which I totally don’t get how an HR person would not be a people person, but they are not. HR is something that you often need to talk though a situation and no longer having that and having my friend at work each day, has left a big void in my life.

We have a cruise planned for January, so we will continue to travel, but I miss our everyday work interaction and having her support in very difficult situations. The other loss I have had recently is that of my housekeeper for the past several years. She and I had opposite views on so much, but we had great respect for each other’s views and the passion we both had for those views. During the height of Covid, she was the only person I talked face to face with for months besides the hubby! We would respect each other’s physical space when she came each week, but had great talks about so much, not sure how she got the house cleaning done, as I was a chatter box on many days. Many of those talks, I was at my wits end trying to figure out how to take care of projects during this all, she was such a great listener, I think I should have written her a check for therapy some days! She got a chance to go in a different direction and has left Crystal Beach. Fridays are not as fun without her! I know I cannot replace these two lovely ladies from the roles they played in my life, but it was changes that were not fun. I am happy for them both and know we will stay in touch, but again, life changed and I had no choice but to change with it.

I guess if life did not change, we would gripe about that. I am going to work on getting my change skills back up to speed, as I know there are many more coming and I want to embrace change again, not dread it.

[Nov-9-2021]